Palin’s policies mirror’s Bush’s

Published 3:25 pm Friday, September 26, 2008

To really understand Sarah Palin on environmental issues, you just have to look to Bush environmental policy. Apparently, she shares Bush’s consistent tendency to side with industry and turn his back on protections for endangered species.

In the case of the Cook Inlet Beluga Whales, a population estimated at around 375, down from 1,300 in the 1980s, Palin sided with industry to stall endangered status for the whales. According to an Alaskan newspaper, the Peninsula Clarion, in an article written in July, 2008, (before Palin was famous), a local environmental group leader was quoted as saying, “The Palin administration’s request for delay and the Bush administration’s willingness to do so are not based on science but rather on an ideology that always favors industry over the environment.”

Is the image of Sarah Palin as a daughter of Alaska, a pretty yet tough woman huntress, all that we should believe about her? Perhaps so. But for anyone who wants a deeper look into what she would mean for the future of some of our most beloved species, you need only to look to Bush’s dismal record on the environment.

Gail DiBernardo